Presented by Gerry Nosowska with guests Fiona Richardson (Skills for Care/Oxford Brookes) and Shalini Norris (Access to Advocacy, Lancashire). This webinar explores: the changes to the law regarding information, advice and advocacy and how these fit with the wider aims of the Care Act and the related challenges, and some examples of how these are being addressed in different areas.

1. Care Act Expert Webinar
Providing Good Information,
Advice and Advocacy
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2. Webinar aims
We will explore
• The changes to the law regarding information,
advice and advocacy and how these fit with the
wider aims of the Care Act
• The related challenges, and some examples of how
these are being addressed in different areas
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3. Webinar objectives
By the end of this webinar, you will have
• Begun to consider how effectively your existing
services meet the requirements of the Care Act
• Identified barriers and enablers to meeting these
requirements
• Examined key examples of good practice
• Started to identify next steps in your area
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4. Webinar agenda
1. Definitions
2. What’s working at the moment?
3. The changes to the law
4. Getting your own information across
5. Coordinating provision of information and advice
6. Independent advocacy – why it matters
7. Final thoughts
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5. Definitions
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6. Definitions from the Care Act Guidance
Information means the communication of
knowledge and facts regarding care and support.
It can be subdivided into ‘self-help’ and ‘assisted’
information
Advice means helping a person to identify choices
and/or providing an opinion or recommendation
regarding a course of action in relation to care
and support.
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7. Definitions from the Care Act Guidance
Financial information and advice covers services
whose purpose is to help people plan, prepare and
pay for their care costs. ‘Independent’ financial
information or advice means services independent
of the local authority.
Advocacy means supporting a person to understand
information, express their needs and wishes,
secure their rights, represent their interests and
obtain the care and support they need.
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8. A degree of overlap
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e.g.
leaflet;
website
e.g.
helpline,
library
e.g.
social
worker, GP
e.g.
financial
advisor
e.g.
advocate,
family
member
Self-help
information
Assisted
information
Advice
Specialist
advice
Advocacy

9. What’s working at the moment?
What challenges are you facing in the provision of
information, advice and advocacy?
In which areas are you well prepared and on track?
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10. Changes to the law
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11. The wider context of the Care Act
• Long overdue bringing together of the patchwork
of adult social care legislation
• Changing relationship between people and services
• A move from dependency to empowerment –
assisting people and communities to find
sustainable solutions
• Dwindling resources and increased demand 11

12. Empowerment
Two senses:
1. Giving power (whether political, social or
economic) to someone
• This is what underlies notions of co-production
Or
2. Supporting someone to claim personal power.
• This is what underlies person-centred care and
an outcomes-based approach.
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13. How does the Care Act empower?
1. Universal access to information and
advice
1. Informing people so they can make the best
choices for themselves: starting from the notion
that people are experts in what’s best for them
2. This responsibility extends to all citizens, not just
those with eligible needs
3. This links to the council’s preventative role: it
empowers people by helping to keep their options
open; by preventing/delaying/reducing needs for
care and support.
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14. How does the Care Act empower?
2. Improved access to advocacy
1. Although far from universal (as we’ll see below),
the role of independent advocacy is a recognition
of the power of advocacy
2. LAs have the option of providing advocacy more
widely than the Care Act requires. Rather than
simply a communication aid, advocacy can be
seen as protector of the person’s human rights.
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15. The prevention agenda
The provision of information, advice and advocacy is
part of addressing the aim of preventing, delaying
and reducing people’s need for care and support:
• With good information and advice, people can
make better, healthier decisions
• It is important for tackling the issue of multiple
needs and exclusions
• help to access specialist support or common
interest groups
• advocacy promotes the individual’s rights and
interests and hence their wellbeing 15

16. The letter of the law:
information and advice
Section 4 of the Care Act specifies that an LA must
‘establish and maintain a service for providing people
in its area with information and advice relating to
care and support for adults and support for carers’
including
• Types of care and support available and how to
access it
• How to access independent financial advice
• How to raise concerns
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17. The letter of the law:
information and advice
The LA must also
• ensure information and advice provided is
accessible and proportionate
• ‘have regard to the importance of identifying those
individuals’ who would benefit from financial
advice
• Make sure that this advice is good enough to allow
them to plan and make decisions about their own
care.
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18. Information and advice: what does
the Guidance say?
It is the LA’s responsibility to ensure the
• COHERENCE
• SUFFICIENCY
• AVAILABILITY
• ACCESSIBILITY
of information and advice relating to care and
support across its area (p23)
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19. As well as covering basic information about what care and
support is available, this service needs to cover
• prevention of care and support needs
• finances
• health
• housing
• employment
• what to do in cases of abuse or neglect of an adult and other
areas where required (p23-24)
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Information and advice: what does
the Guidance say?

20. This duty is about
• engaging with and understanding the needs of
people in your area and
• ensuring that the requirement to provide
information is met in the most appropriate way –
whether by the authority or another organisation.
• It falls on the authority to ‘understand, co-ordinate
and make effective use of’ other I&A resources in
your area
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Information and advice: what does
the Guidance say?

21. The particular needs of carers may include:
• breaks from caring;
• the health and wellbeing of carers themselves;
• caring and advice on wider family relationships;
• carers’ financial and legal issues;
• caring and employment;
• caring and education; and,
• a carer’s need for advocacy.
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Information and advice: what does
the Guidance say?

22. Getting your own information
across
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23. Skills for Care resources
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skillsforcare.org.uk
Provides slide
packs,
summaries, a
workbook
and case
studies.
Can be used
as the basis
for staff
development.

24. The RiPfA Practice
Tool
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ripfa.org.uk
• Outlines good practice
regarding information
provision for different
groups
• Helps you audit the
information you provide
• Helps you ask service
users and carers what is
working and not working
• Tool to support reflection

25. Challenges in the provision of
information
• Generally people do not have a good
understanding of adult social care and there may
be stigma in approaching it (ADASS, 2011).
• Often people first seek information at a time of
crisis (Bottery and Holloway, 2013).
• Uncoordinated services will result in
uncoordinated, unreliable information (Anderson,
2011)
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26. Challenges in the provision of
information
• Older people are less likely to use the internet or call centres
(Horton, 2009)
• BME groups face cultural and linguistic barriers (Zahno and
Rhule, 2008). An equality impact assessment on the
provision of information can address this (c.f. Newham’s
safeguarding work – see RiPfA blog 13/3/14)
• Self-funders may not be seen as a priority (Hudson and
Henwood, 2009)
• Many people face difficulties with communication or capacity
(IDEA, 2009)
• People who face stigma are less likely to engage with social
care (RiPfA, 2013).
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27. Good practice in the provision of
information
• People are more likely to seek information if they
believe it will be available and accessible, relevant
and understandable, useful and trustworthy.
• Involving customers in planning how information
and advice are provided, having an organisational
strategy and joining up with other agencies all
help.
• Organisations should use a range of formats,
media and places to provide information (IDEA,
2009).
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28. Good practice in the provision of
information
• The third sector, including User Led Organisations
(ULOs), can provide more independent information
and advice (RiPfA, 2011b, 2012b).
• Tailored information and support, often provided
face to face, is particularly important for groups
who face barriers (Putting People First, 2009,
Zahno and Rhule, 2008).
• Centrality of personal relationships: staff need
skills and tools (Newbronner et al, 2011).
• I&A should be followed up on, and information
services reviewed (RiPfA, 2013). 28

29. Coordinating the provision of
information and advice
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30. The TLAP Strategy Tool
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Takes you
through six
stages of
developing a
local I&A
strategy,
providing
tools,
resources and
case studies.
thinklocalactpersonal.org.uk

31. An example of good
practice
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• Maintained by
Healthwatch
• Different
views of the
same data
depending on
your needs
(social care,
mental health,
etc)

32. How will you meet your information
and advice requirements?
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33. Independent Advocacy – why it
matters
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34. The letter of the law:
independent advocacy
Section 67 of the Care Act says that a local authority must
provide an independent advocate if an individual would
experience substantial difficulty with one or more of the
following
‘(a) understanding relevant information;
(b) retaining that information;
(c) using or weighing that information as part of the process of
being involved;
(d) communicating the individual’s views, wishes or feelings
(whether by talking, using sign language or any other means).’
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35. The duty to provide an independent advocate does
not apply
• if there is ‘an appropriate person to represent and
support the individual’ who is not being paid to
care for them, and as long as
• the individual has given their consent if possible,
or
• if this is not possible, the LA is happy that ‘being
represented and supported by that person would
be in the individual’s best interests’.
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The letter of the law:
independent advocacy

36. Advocacy: what does the Guidance
say?
‘The ultimate aim is for people’s wishes, feelings and
needs to be at the heart of the assessment, care
planning and review processes.’
It is the need for people to be involved in decisions
about them that advocacy addresses.
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37. • There is a separate requirement for an
independent advocate in the case of a
Safeguarding Adults Review (SAR) (Section 68).
• If an individual already has an advocate, the same
person would ideally play the same role in the
SAR.
• If a safeguarding inquiry needs to start prior to the
appointment of an advocate it can – although the
Guidance notes the particular importance of
advocacy in enabling an adult who may have been
abused or neglected to be involved in the process. 37
Advocacy and safeguarding

38. A step in the right direction – but
not far enough?
• Consensus that advocacy is of benefit to people
• The Care Act targets advocacy provision by
focusing on issues of communication and
understanding
• This plays down the more fundamental aspect of
ensuring someone’s rights are protected
• Councils can promote and provide advocacy
services more widely than in the narrow
circumstances described in the Act
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39. Why would councils provide more
than the statutory minimum?
Better for people
• It protects their rights
• It empowers them (gives them more control)
• Helps them to identify and articulate their outcomes
Better for the organisation
• Wider use of advocacy is efficient at preventing,
delaying and reducing need for care and support.
• It accords with anti-oppressive practice.
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40. Advocacy: models and effectiveness
Models of advocacy
• Self-advocacy
• Peer advocacy
• Volunteer citizen
advocacy
• Independent/
professional advocacy
• Non-instructed advocacy
(Stewart and MacIntyre, 2013)
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iriss.org.uk

41. A good advocate…
• builds a relationship of trust (Townsley et al, 2009,
Palmer et al, 2012)
• has a clearly defined role and the appropriate
skills, knowledge and experience (Townsley et al,
2009)
• is culturally sensitive
• works either for a service user or a carer
(Stewart and MacIntyre, 2013)
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42. Benefits of advocacy
• Promotes people’s rights and supports anti-
oppressive practice
• Greater empowerment, self-efficacy and
confidence
• Greater sense of participation and having one’s
voice heard
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43. Evaluating the effectiveness of
advocacy
When considering what works in relation to
advocacy, it is important to separate out the
person’s experience from outcomes
(Featherstone et al, 2012).
This is because not achieving a person’s outcome –
say, that of returning to employment – does not
mean that advocacy didn’t work.
Thanks to the advocate, the person could have been
better represented, more involved in the process and
had a better experience overall.
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44. Commissioning independent
advocacy
• Specialist provision is required for groups with
particular support or communication needs
• In such cases, particular training needs must be
addressed
• Advocates need independence from services
(even if funded by them) – but not to be
isolated from them
(Stewart and MacIntyre, 2013) 44

45. SCIE’s Guide to Commissioning
Independent Advocacy
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Sections include
• key messages
• advocacy duties
• inclusion
• good practice
• Equality Act
compliance
• scenarios
scie.org.uk

46. An example of good
practice
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• Shift from patchwork of 9 different providers
(2007) to a coordinated service (2013)
• Single low cost phone number, staffed by
experienced practitioners
• Quality assured
• People helped increased (over 30%), costs
reduced (by more than 36%)

47. How will you meet the requirement
to provide independent advocacy?
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48. Final thoughts
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49. Contact
www.ripfa.org.uk
help@ripfa.org.uk
@ripfa
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